U.S. Pat. No. 4,001,742 entitled "Circuit Breaker Having Improved Operating Mechanism" describes a circuit breaker capable of interrupting several thousand amperes of circuit current at several hundred volts potential. As described therein, the operating mechanism controls the powerful operating springs that open and close the circuit breaker contacts. Once the operating mechanism has responded to separate the contacts, the operating springs must be recharged to supply sufficient motive force to the movable contact arms that carry the contacts.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/218,287 filed on 28 Mar. 1994 entitled "Handle Operator Assembly for High Ampere-rated Circuit Breaker" describes an assembly for manually charging the circuit breaker contact closing springs.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/214,522 filed on 3 Mar. 1994 entitled "Latching Arrangement for High Ampere-rated Circuit Breaker" describes the latching arrangement used to retain the powerful operating mechanism springs from driving the circuit breaker contacts to the closed position.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/265,877 entitled filed on 27 Jun. 1994 "Handle Interlock Arrangement for High Ampere-Rated Circuit Breakers" describes restraining the circuit breaker operating handle after the circuit breaker contact closing springs have become fully charged.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/304,331 entitled "Positive Charge Indicator Arrangement for High Ampere-Rated Circuit Breaker" describes interlocking the circuit breaker charging springs indicator flag by means of a logic plate and logic lever to prevent the charge indicating flag from signaling until and unless the closing springs are fully charged.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/266,409 filed on 27 Jun. 1994 entitled "Sequential Close Interlock Arrangement for a High-Rated Circuit Breaker" describes the interaction between a closing link and the circuit breaker contact closing springs button to prevent operation of the closing button unless the closing springs are fully charged.
The purpose of this invention is to interlock the circuit breaker contact closing springs per se to prevent release of the closing springs when the contact springs are only partially charged.